Shadow Girl
by VampanezeLordess
Summary: This is a fantasy story, completely original, told in the first person of a 14 year old boy named Bucky, who meets a mysterious girl with a secret unlike any other. The rest you will have to read for youself.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I'm Buck Anderson. Everyone calls me Bucky. I'm 14 years old, and I'm not afraid of anything.

Until about a year or two ago, I had never believed in anything abnormal. Mythology or any of that sort was complete nonsense. Spiders weren't dangerous the way I saw it. And I wasn't, and still _not,_ scared of the dark.

Ok, maybe the _one_ thing I'm scared of is my little sister, but I'll explain that later.

All of this changed for me one night, in the beginning of September. It was Saturday and I was walking home to my house in Bridgeville, New York, from probably one of the coolest parties I've ever been to. The music was a bit too loud (In other words, I almost went deaf) but other than that, the competitions and the decorations were great.

I was walking home alone, but as I still today don't believe in ghost stories, I didn't mind.

For some reason, however, of all the nights that I've ever walked home alone, this one seemed different. It almost felt like I was being watched. Like someone, or something, was observing my every move. I took this to mind and shuddered slightly.

"It's probably just one of my friends trying to scare me," I reassured myself, and I relaxed. Ever since I had told my pals I wasn't afraid of anything, they'd been constantly trying to catch me off-guard. It never worked.

I kept walking. It felt like the beginning of a horror movie: the hero walking through an eerie forest on a dark and cold September night, the moon is out (although here it was only half a moon), the wind is blowing, and there is an occasional snap behind you, even when there's nothing there. I tried to ignore this as best as I could.

Suddenly, something leaped over my head and landed in front of me. I fell backward in shock. When I got to my feet, there was someone standing in front of me…a girl.

At first she looked like any other girl…but then I noticed something was different about her:

As she took a few steps forward, she moved as quickly as a cheetah, as swiftly as a horse, and as quietly as an owl. On her forehead, there was a glowing blue light in the shape of a diamond, sort of like a different version of Harry Potter's lightning-bolt scar.

The girl was now standing in the shadow of a nearby tree, so I couldn't see anything besides the diamond, preventing me from getting any idea of who she was.

As my eyes adjusted more to the light of the moon, I did see something else that probably sounds really stupid…was I seeing a pair of cat ears on her head, and…was that a _tail_? I could have sworn I was hallucinating. I looked down at the ground and tried to snap out of it.

"This is not happening. This is not happening," I kept whispering to myself.

Either she was really fast, or I had been thinking for a long time, and that's because when I looked up again, the girl was gone!

I hurried home, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually a little creeped out, and you could tell: my eyes were wide, and my hands we shaking the slightest bit; that was from the shock of whatever had leaped over my head.

At first I was positive I was seeing things, and the more I thought about it, the crazier this whole thing seemed; but deep down, part of me still believed it had happened.

That night was really uneasy for me. My little sister, Delilah, (I told you I would bring her up), had a feeling that something was on my mind, as she usually did, and she wouldn't stop bugging me about it.

Let me just say, for the record, that Delilah was the most annoying little sister ever. Ok, to be honest, she understood me (not many did); she was helpful, occasionally funny, and trustworthy. However, other than that, she was the worst!

"What are you thinking about, Buckinator?" she asked. I hated it when she called me Buckinator. "Is it about the party? Did you meet someone? Was it a girl? Oh my God, do you have a girlfriend? Mom is going to kill you if she finds out…"

"Shut up, Delilah, please!" I snapped, but she couldn't stop talking. How I hated my 7th grade sister sometimes! Finally, I gave up and told her everything that had happened.

"That sounds strange coming out of you, Mr. I-don't-believe-in-magic!" Delilah teased, and she left, laughing at a joke that was seriously immature for a twelve-year-old.

I groaned. Delilah was completely self-centered. She always thought she was _so _funny. To make a point, Delilah's one of the _only_ people who thinks she's funny!

Anyway, I thought about talking about it with my parents, but they would probably have thought the same thing that Delilah did, so I kept my mouth shut.

That night, I couldn't sleep a wink. So many things were going through my mind. _Who was this girl? What was she doing? Did she really have cat ears and a tail? What about that diamond on her forehead? Were my eyes playing tricks on me? _"Don't be stupid," I thought aloud to myself. "I _was_ seeing things. Besides, who the heck still believes in magic or mythical creatures in my grade, anyway?"

But that was the question I just couldn't answer. That's all I was thinking about before I fell into a deep sleep. What I didn't realize was that this experience was going to change my life completely_…forever._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next morning was the first day of school, and it did not start out well. I was having a really weird dream, when all of a sudden, I felt something poking me.

I slowly opened my eyes to see a blurry yet obvious Delilah leaning over me. "Get up, Buckinator. Mom's been calling you for, like, twenty minutes," she said.

I looked over at my clock; it read 7:30. "Delilah, go away," I groaned, still half asleep, "Can't you see I'm trying to get some sleep here?"

"Buckinator, if you don't get up now, you're going to miss the bus," Delilah replied.

That's when my brain must have started functioning properly, because that's when I remembered what today was. I scooted Delilah out of my room, got dressed, ate breakfast, grabbed my bag, and got the heck out of there!

When I jumped on the bus, I scooted to the last row, and tossed my bag onto the seat next to me. At the next stop, Chris got on, quickly found me, and sat down next to me. "Man, my morning was crazy," Chris said, "I had to drag myself out of bed. Then, as I was running around the house like a maniac to find all my books, I burnt my toast. Honestly, why does my mom allow me to make my own breakfast? This is _toast_ we're talking about here. Toast! Anyways, I'm really glad I got here on time," he sighed, slumping back into the seat.

"And I thought I had it bad! Compared to your morning, my story is like breathing," I replied, and told him the few things that had gotten on my nerves in the hour that I had been up so far.

The bus had already completed two stops. Seconds after I told my story, the bus pulled up in front of one of the most familiar looking houses I know. I saw Justin get on.

"Chris, quick, get down!" I whispered, and we ducked under the seat. I could hear a few girls pretending to faint as Justin passed them.

Finally, I assumed he saw our empty chair, because he asked one of the girls, in front of our seat: "Hey have you seen Chris or Bucky?"

The girl, Carly, pulled out one of her earphones out of her ears. When Justin wasn't looking, she stole a peek behind her chair and caught my eye. Chris and I hand-motioned for her not to give us away.

"Umm, no…I haven't actually. Then again, I wasn't really paying attention," Carly said cleverly, and slipped the earphone back into her ear. She was one of the only girls who wasn't charmed by Justin.

Falling for Carly's lie, Justin walked straight back to our seat. He slipped his bag next to mine, (which, or course, he assumed was someone else's), and was about to sit down. I find it odd how he didn't notice two of his best friends literally right below him. We tried not to laugh. Just as he sat down, we made our move.

"BOO!" Chris and I shouted, jumping up. Justin fell back in surprise, landing in the seat across the aisle. That's when Chris and I lost it. I laughed so hard I fell over. Justin groaned as half the bus turned around to see what all the fuss was about.

After hearing from Carly what had happened, the whole bus was filled with laughter.

When we got to school, all of the girls in front of us made way for Justin to get off before them. As he passed them, they all started following. Justin stopped and turned around. "Hey, could you let my friends pass too?" Seeing me and Chris, they all quickly moved out of the way.

"We're so sorry Bucky," they said as I walked by, as if not letting the kids in the _front_ get of first somehow made sense.

"Oh, it's alright," I smiled at them, letting them know that it wasn't a big deal. The girls smiled back, and one giggled.

"He's cute," I heard one of them whisper.

It was hard not to smile at _that_.

When we all got off the bus, Justin groaned. He jerked his head towards the bus parked in front of ours. "Here comes Julie," I said to Chris. She scoffed at Justin, gave a quick smile to me, and didn't even look at Chris as she passed.

With that night still fresh in my mind, it was hard to concentrate during any of my classes at school that day. I had a feeling that I completely failed that math test, (which I had studied my butt off for, obviously…that was entirely sarcastic. What kind of teacher gives a test on the first day of school?) When lunch came around, I finally had the guts to pull my friends aside.

Chris Seville and Justin Cook were my closest friends. The two were practically opposites.

Chris was a very quiet, light brown haired kid. Justin, on the other hand, was a blonde, popularity superstar. He was like the thing that wouldn't shut up!

Anyway, when I told them about the night before, Justin gulped. Chris groaned; he already had a pretty good idea of what was coming. Not wanting to have to listen, Chris immediately excused himself, and hurried off.

When I asked Justin what the fuss was about, he whispered, "Follow me, and I'll show you," and I obeyed.

He led me back to the doors of the science room, where Justin and I had been right before lunch. "Do you see the kid in there?" he asked silently.

I looked, and I saw Mae Redwood. Mae was an attractive blonde. She was one of the new girls.

"Who, the new kid?" I asked Justin.

"No, I'm talking about the wall; she the only one in the room, idiot!" he said.

I groaned.

"Well, anyway, there's a rumor going around that Mae is…well…not like the other girls in our grade," Justin continued, and when he saw that I was interested, he kept talking. "I personally think she totally matches the girl you saw last night."

"Now that's just plain stupid!" I exclaimed, "Why the heck would it be someone like her?"

Justin shushed me. "Keep it down, will you! Someone will hear you, possibly Mae!" he hissed. He then told me all he knew about her, and how when I had told him what I had seen last night, he had a thought that he "knew" was right: _It was Mae! _

"You're just making this up as you go, aren't you?" I asked. He didn't reply to that, so I knew I was right.

Justin liked making fun of new kids, pretending they've got something wrong with them. My encounter the night before was a golden opportunity for Justin to make fun of Mae. I suppose that's what I had to deal with, if I was going to be friends with the guy competing for the coolest in school.

The three of us got back together a little before the last lunch bell chimed. "So, have you guys figured out what song we're doing for the school talent show this year?" Chris asked the two of us.

The talent show at our school was pretty much the biggest event in town. The entire town arrived and celebrated ever year around the time of the show. The talent show was so big, it was actually televised worldwide!

Bridgeville wasn't the biggest town in New York, but it certainly was a popular one! Even a few celebrities lived in Bridgeville. There were a few big towns around us, though: Scarsdale, White Plains, and Tarrytown, so we were squashed in the middle.

The sports season was pretty big in Bridgeville, too. Our school colors were blue and white, and our mascot was the bear. I didn't really participate in the sports, except for baseball, but Justin sure did. He was a big basketball, baseball, _and _football player.

For me, I was actually into singing, and I wasn't embarrassed by it. There were many popular male singers in 2011, like Jesse McCartney, Usher, and Bruno Mars. At the time, and still now, I really didn't understand why Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers were such girl magnets (no offense to them!)

I was thinking about singing for the talent show, and maybe have Justin play the guitar and Chris hit the drums. They had agreed on that idea, too.

After school, Justin, Chris and I decided to gather at Chris's house to hang out, plus talk more about my crazy night. At first, my parents didn't allow me to go over to his house, (after all, it was a school night, and I still had a load of homework to do), but for once, the kid won the battle. When I got there, Chris filled in all the things that Justin had left out, which was basically everything.

He said that Mae was a girl from out of town who had just moved in. She is a softball player and apparently multi-talented. She doesn't talk much, but when she does, it's usually to correctly answer a question in the classes that Chris shares with her. To support Justin's point, she is concealed and a bit mysterious, but nothing too crazy.

The last thing Chris mentioned is that Mae's best friends were Julie Ryans and Sabrina Miller, two cool yet intimidating girls in our grade.

Julie was the most popular _girl _in Bridgeville Middle School, and she knew it! There was a competition between her and Justin for the most popular _kid_ in school, which is why they hated each other.

Julie seemed really sweet sometimes, but she could be really vicious, too. She bragged a lot, for the record.

She didn't really talk to me very much. I wasn't sure, but she didn't seem to have some sort of interest in me, but it's not like I was hoping she, you know, _liked_ me…I didn't have a crush on her, Ok? Don't even think about starting any rumors.

Sabrina…well…let's just say she wasn't someone you wanted to mess with…at all. Tougher than all the boys, she must have been the meanest bully in the history of bullies on Earth!

Well, she's mean to _almost_ everyone. I remembered that on that first day of school, Sabrina had been walking down the hall. Everyone cleared as she passed.

Except Justin, who teased: "Hey Sabrina. How are you?" And he didn't say that in a nice way. Sabrina gave him a look, and he backed away, as if accused of something he hadn't done.

When she walked by Chris, he immediately started backing up. Sabrina just rolled her eyes. Sabrina didn't really like it when people acted all scared of her; sure, it made her feel powerful, but I could tell that she still hated it.

Something changed when she passed me however.

"Um, hey Sabrina. Did you have a good summer?" I asked nervously, trying hard not to show any fear. I knew if what I said even _sounded_ wrong, I could get seriously hurt.

She stopped walking. "Oh, hey Bucky. I had an O.K. summer, I guess. What about you?" she replied sweetly. I couldn't believe it. Sabrina actually _smiled_ at me! I told her that my summer was cool, and she nodded, smiled _again_, and walked away.

I didn't understand why all the meaner girls seemed to act nicer to me. I couldn't see how I was different from anyone else.

Anyway, how _Mae_ had found the good side in Julie, I'll never know.

I do, however, know how Mae became friends with Sabrina…I think. Early that day, Mae was walking down the hallway. I saw her turn the corner and crash into Sabrina, knocking both their books across the floor.

I heard a few gasps. Sabrina's eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms.

"Hey new girl, you'd better watch where you're going!" Sabrina snapped at her, with a familiar icy glare in her eyes. That never failed to make me shudder, even though it was never directed at me.

"I'm so sorry, really," Mae replied. You could hear her terrified breathing from across the room. Mae's books wobbled as her shaking grip as she picked them up, and she almost dropped them again.

"Yeah, you'd better be."

A crowd formed around the two. This was something that no one could miss, including me.

At first, Mae was too scared to say anything, but not long after, things started to change a bit. This time, when Sabrina insulted her, Mae completely back-fired it at her! This is what was said:

"Who else is that clumsy?" Sabrina snapped.

"Clearly not me…I wasn't the one staring at my cellphone."

A few gasps.

"Backfiring, huh? That's kind of dangerous around me, you know; plus, it's almost as pathetic as you are!"

"At least I know how to backfire…short and to the point," Mae shot back. She stuck her tongue out teasingly.

"Were you raised by 3-year-olds or something; how childish!"

"Is this how you get around every day; picking on some new kid like me? Seriously, get a LIFE!"

That stopped Sabrina in her tracks. Her eyes widened, and she stopped just as she started to say something.

A long, awkward pause followed.

"I gotta say I'm impressed!" Sabrina said finally. She smirked, (not in a mean way). Mae smiled back innocently.

"Hey, so what class do you have now?" I heard Sabrina whisper, pulling her aside.

"Um…English, I think," Mae replied quietly.

"Cool…me too. Come on let's go," Sabrina took hold of Mae's left arm, and led her towards Mr. Walters's English room. Everyone was in awe!

When it comes to Julie, however, I hadn't even known they were friends until now, so it was still a mystery to me.

What Justin, Chris and I did know was that Sabrina could have beaten us up with her hands tied behind her back, Julie was good at creating rumors when you insulted her, and that Mae was amazing at back-firing.

So now that the three of them were friends, there was no telling what they could've done.

After all of that, Justin whispered something in Chris's ear. He considered it for a few seconds, and then nodded slowly.

When I got home, I sped through dinner, and then rushed upstairs to my room. Delilah obviously spotted something weird, and I simply told her that I was exhausted, and left it at that.

"Whatever. Later Buckinator," she yawned.

What was really happening was that I had a plan that I had worked out with my friends at Chris's house (it was what Chris and Justin were whispering about). We decided that _I_ would sneak out, in the middle of the night, (obviously I had no say in that!) and go to the exact spot that I had seen what could have possibly been Mae.

I had to stay there for exactly one hour. Justin had given me this really cool timer to keep track. If she showed up again, before that time was up, I would try to get a closer look, and possibly find out who she is. If an hour went by, and I didn't see her, I would head home, and then I could stick with the theory that magic wasn't real.

Perhaps it was just a normal cat, and the shadows made it look like a girl. Maybe it was the other way around. Well, I was about to find out. I said goodnight to my family, and when I was sure they were fast asleep, I snuck out my window. I retraced my steps to where the girl, or whatever it was, had leaped over my head, and waited.

It seemed like hours had gone by. Just when my timer was about to go off, I got that feeling that I was being watched again. I quickly turned around, just in time to see something racing towards me, and it was lightning fast! I thought it was going to smack into me, so I snapped my eyes shut…

…Nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes again to see a figure in front of me…it was the girl! "Who are you?" she asked. Her voice sounded slightly high-pitched, out of nerve, I guess, and it reminded me of Delilah. "Who are you?" she repeated, more impatiently this time, and her voice more natural.

This time I recognized her. It _was _Mae!

"Uh, I'm Bucky-uh-Buck Anderson," I stuttered. "I-I think I go to school with you. Your name is Mae, right?"

She gasped. She was completely stunned, and I guess the girl recognized me. "H-How did you know?" she exclaimed, but she didn't wait for an answer. Within seconds, the girl turned and fled.

"WAIT!" I called after her, but she had disappeared. Still shocked at what I had discovered, I ran home, snuck back into my room, and got into bed. "That must have been Mae. But how?" I thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A week went by, and things kept getting weirder and weirder. Mae seemed to talk more and more to Julie and Sabrina, and certainly not as loudly as they had before. I had told my friends about Mae, so maybe it was the same for her.

Apparently, Mae had had a hard time matching my face with the name she had been given the night before (considering she probably didn't see me, since the moon hadn't been out), but she did eventually figure it out. I got a terrible feeling that she was going to send Sabrina to beat me up or something!

It seemed that Mae had noticed that I was watching her, because the Monday after that weekend, I saw her walking in our direction. It was the middle of recess, and Justin, Chris and I were the only ones in the hallway.

She simply said, "Hi. Can I talk to you for a second?" That made me nervous, but I said yes and followed her to the end of the hallway.

"Ooh!" Justin smirked, and I scowled at him. When I turned my back on the two, I heard them following behind, ready to eavesdrop.

Mae asked a question that made my heart stop: "Well, it seems like we ran into each other last week. Or, at least it was _someone _named Buck. Was it you?"

When I didn't reply, she looked really embarrassed. I finally decided to give in.

"Yeah, it was me. You mean last Monday? Just outside of Bridgeville, right?"

"Exactly," she nodded. "Will you please not tell anyone? Really, I didn't mean for anyone to find out."

I shot Justin and Chris a look, and they immediately knew why.

When Mae saw this, she understood. "It's alright, they can know." she sighed.

The next question she asked made me have to think it over again, just to make sure I wasn't going a bit deaf: "Hey, I was wondering, do you and your friends…I don't know…want to hang out with me and my friends?"

My friends, having heard this, and knowing that if they could hang out with Sabrina, they wouldn't be beaten up by her, nodded like crazy.

Laughing, I replied to Mae, "That sounds like a great idea!"

She smiled and walked away.

"Oooh, I think she likes you!" Justin teased.

I punched his arm.

"OW! God, I was kidding!" he yelped.

That night, we gathered at Chris's house again, except there were six of us now…Me, Justin, Chris, Mae, Julie, and Sabrina. Mae felt she could trust us. The rest of us promised not to tell anyone anything.

"Well, you see, when I heard this rumor about me, you know, being 'different' and all, going around, it really made me nervous."

When Justin gulped, that's when I groaned: he _had _started that rumor! I was really angry now. Luckily for Justin, Mae didn't seem to notice, and she continued.

"I mean, it was true...kind of. I'm part animal, part human, and, believe it or not, I'm the princess of bugs." Most of this Mae had said in whispers, because her parents didn't even know about this, and she didn't plan on telling them, either.

Usually, when your friend's parents hear things about you, they tell your parents, which most of the time…isn't a good thing.

"It actually hasn't been long since I found out that I had these powers." Mae explained how last summer, at camp, she had met a girl named Maia. Strangely, still in the beginning of camp, Maia had asked if she could see a strand of Mae's hair. Maia came up to her soon afterward, telling her that Mae had powers.

That was just the start of it, though. Another girl named Francesca was also part of this abnormal group, and she actually had vampire power. Mae alone had all sorts of animal powers, and because she was the princess of bugs, she could turn into any bug she wanted to.

Mae's favorite animal powers were cheetah, vampire, tiger, and dolphin. Maia had told her that when you buy or make any jewelry or clothing, you get a new power.

"What do you mean?" Chris asked her, "Are you saying that I have to start wearing earrings and necklaces?"

I cracked up. Sabrina rolled her eyes.

Mae continued talking. She said that Maia was the princess of animals, and could also get visions of the future. Maia had said that you could also give powers to another person, but the kid who had it to begin with would lose it.

When Mae had finished describing this, Justin groaned, "Is that all?"

Mae giggled. She seemed to really like Justin. I think Justin liked Mae as well, and that was a bit strange, assuming he had started that awful rumor about her.

It kind of stunk on my part, because I kind of liked her, too. I got the feeling that there would be a love war or something between the two of us.

At that moment, I realized that Julie seemed to be watching me. Was she actually starting to, you know, _like me? _"That's impossible," I thought. "How could Julie possibly like me? I mean, she practically hates my friends! Why am I any different?"

Or that's what I thought. Maybe I was wrong. The thought of ever getting together with Julie brought a shiver up my spine.

Of course, we weren't all allowed to stay over at Chris's house for the night, so while I stayed, everyone went home. Obviously Chris stayed. He lived there! Unfortunately, my mom called minutes later and sent me home. I just hated her sometimes!

Delilah wanted to know everything that I had been up to, ever since that first night where I had seen Mae. "Where have you been, Buckinator?" she started up her rally of questions.

"You were at Chris's house, right? What were you talking about? Did you find out who that girl was? Is she cute? Is that your new girlfriend that Mom would kill you if she found out about…"

"DELILAH!" I screeched at the top of my lungs. My sister jumped, and immediately shut her mouth. Mom came in to see what was going on.

"Will you please get her out of here?" I complained to her. She sighed and scooted Delilah out of my room.

"You really should be nicer to her, Bucky," my mom sighed.

"_Goodnight, Mom!_" I said, with anger in my voice. It was my way of ending a conversation.

That night, all I could think about was everything that Mae had told us. The other thing was how Julie had been looking at me, almost sweetly, while Mae had been describing Maia and everything she knew.

It was another night of questions for me. _Does Julie really like me? Does Mae like Justin? Does Justin like Mae? _Ok, Bucky, new subject please!_ Is all of this talk about powers and creatures and all of that real? Can I really say that I don't believe in magic anymore? _

The last question was the only one that I could answer…at that was no, I really couldn't say that I didn't believe in magic anymore…

…and I was soon to become part Mae's magic…part of the world that Maia had introduced.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Over the weekend, all of us hung out in this huge, awesome new tree house in Mae's backyard. We decided that it was going to be the new place that we would go to after school every day.

I was really excited that day, and that was because Mae was actually going to show us one of her powers. Well, not exactly at that moment, because if her parents saw her, they would freak.

The plan was that all of us would sneak out at night, (by then I kind of knew how that worked), and meet her at the tree house. That's all she told us. I knew there must have been more to it, but she refused to say any more about it.

When I got home, I felt as crazy as the Jitterbug! I tried to avoid Delilah as best as I could, fearing that she would suspect that something was up, (I didn't need to deal with another one of her question rallies!)

We all planned to all meet up at the tree house at 10:30 on the dot. By that time, my family would be out cold, so there would be no trouble sneaking out.

When about 10:15 finally came around, I crawled out of my window, and hurried off to Mae's house. When I got up to the tree house, everyone else was already there.

"Where have you been?" Julie asked. Somehow, the way she said that sounded half annoyed, half just asking honestly.

"We've been waiting for hours!" Justin added, making his eyes droop and resting his head on his hand.

I shot an angry look at him, and he didn't say another word.

Once everyone had calmed down, Mae signaled for us to follow her. She crawled down from the ladder, and everyone followed in single file. The minute Mae touched the ground, she started walking. Having no real other choice, we followed behind.

"Where is she taking us?"I wondered.

I started to wander behind them. Sabrina didn't like that at all. "Hurry up, Bucky!" she hissed. I started running, and I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings.

"I'm comin', I'm comin', I'm com-OOF!"

Since I hadn't been looking where I was going, I smacked into a tree. I fell backward, and for a few seconds everything was spinning. When my vision cleared, I saw Sabrina roll her eyes and start walking again. I quickly got to my feet and caught up with everyone else.

Finally, after it felt like we had been walking forever, Mae stopped abruptly. Justin, having been right behind Mae, nearly smacked into her.

Mae turned around to face us. "Ok, guys, this is it." She whispered. "Now watch!"

Mae backed up from everyone, slapped her hands together, (her left hand in a fist, her right hand facing straight up and down) and shut her eyes lightly. At first, nothing happened. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, streams of colorful light began to surround her. Faster and faster they spun around her. Mae's appearance began to change. The recognizable glowing diamond formed on her forehead. Then the ears and tail. Suddenly, her whole body changed…

…Mae had turned into a _tiger!_

We all stared at her in amazement! Was this actually happening? This just wasn't possible. How could it be possible?

"Somebody pinch me!" I heard Julie say.

That's when I noticed everyone else was backing away. Even Sabrina was shaking with fear! I thought Mae might attack us, but when she stood up on two legs, she had almost the exact same face as Tigress from Kung Fu Panda!

"There's no need to back away, I'm not going to hurt you," she said calmly. She had Tigress's voice, too.

When she said this, everyone knew it was safe, and slowly walked back to where they had been before.

I was astounded. Never in my entire life had I _ever _seen anything like that.

Suddenly, Julie stepped forward. "How did you do that?" she asked curiously. We were all wondering the same thing.

"If I told you, I would have to give you power, too," Mae said, sounding a little nervous.

"What's so bad about that?" Chris asked. It was the first time in a while that he had spoken.

"Because, if I gave you power, then you would be in trouble too," Mae said.

"What is she talking about?" I whispered to Sabrina. She shrugged.

Did Mae mean that we would be in trouble if we got caught?

Mae went back to her normal appearance, and we all started heading back to the tree house. Suddenly, Mae stopped walking. Her eyes widened. "Guys…run!" she whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Justin asked.

"It doesn't matter. Just RUN!" she yelled. I immediately started running. Everyone followed…all except Mae.

"Mae, aren't you coming?" I shouted.

"No. I have to stay. Now go!" she called back.

We all dashed back to the tree house. I ran faster than I ever had before, and I was the first one to make it back.

Everyone was looking at everyone else, out of breath, expecting someone to have an explanation.

"What was that about?" Julie asked finally. Of course, no one knew the answer to that, but Justin and I were determined to.

Well, he wanted to know a little more than I did.

"I'm going back there," he said.

"Justin, no! Are you crazy?" I said, "Who knows what could have been back there? For all we know, it could have been a man slaughterer!"

Julie shuddered when I said that, but Justin didn't pay any attention. Before anyone could do anything, he jumped out of the tree house and ran off.

"He's going to get into a load of trouble. Then again…he always does," Sabrina groaned, not looking the least bit nervous.

"If you're so brave, why don't you go save him?" Chris asked.

"Chris, are you nuts?" I hissed at him. "Sabrina could kill you, you know!"

Sabrina looked at both of us, her eyes narrowed, and Chris backed up to the edge of the room, and refused to say another word.

_Justin ran as fast as his legs would carry him. "Mae? Mae!" he kept calling. Finally he spotted her, but someone else was there, too. Justin stopped. _

_Having heard him, Mae whipped around. She had again taken her tiger form. "What are you doing here?" she asked furiously, a nervous tone in her voice. "Go away, before he wakes up!" _

"_Huh?" Justin looked suspicious._

"_GO!" Mae hissed, and Justin scrambled away. What was Mae talking about? Who was with her? What was going on?_

Back at the tree house, everyone was still wondering what was taking Justin so long. Is he in trouble? "Should someone go and help?" I asked, concerned.

Just then, we heard someone coming up the ladder…it was Justin!

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied.

"What about Mae? Was she still there?"

"Uh huh."

"And…?"

When he didn't answer, everyone looked around, scared out of their minds, and more confused than ever. Even Sabrina looked nervous.

"I'm sure she's fine, but when I got there, she was a tiger again. Someone else was with her, too. I don't know who, but Mae didn't want me there, that's for sure!" Justin explained.

We all were amused by this, and we decided to wait for Mae to come back, and believe me, we waited for a while. When it didn't seem like she was coming back, we all went home.

Once in bed, I couldn't help but worry about Mae. "What was she doing?" I thought aloud to myself. Justin hadn't learned much about the situation, so that was a complete waste of time. How I wished I could've known…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sunday seemed to take forever to go by. I didn't see any of my friends, so boredom easily took over. It felt like there was absolutely nothing to do…even if my house was full of games and books.

Finally, Monday came around, and back to school I went. The minute I got there, it seemed like something was missing. I couldn't seem to figure it out…until math class.

Where was Mae?

Sabrina and Julie looked really worried, and so did Justin and Chris.

No one knew what had happened to her. However, when we decided to gather at the tree house after school anyway…there she was!

"Mae!" I exclaimed.

"You're alive!" Julie squealed, and she gave Mae a hug. She smiled. Everyone was relieved.

"Why weren't you at school today?" I asked.

"I was scared to go back," Mae replied nervously.

"Why?" all five of us asked at once.

"Well, you see…um…oh, never mind, it's nothing!" she stuttered.

Sabrina sighed, "I thought you said you could trust us."

Mae looked around nervously.

"Ok, but in order to tell you, I have to give you each at least one power," she sighed.

Immediately Julie nodded. She was excited now! One by one, the rest of us nodded.

"Ok, but you can't regret it afterward…"

"Ok, ok, just get on with it!" Justin groaned.

Did I mention that Justin was very impatient?

It took a while for everyone to decide what power to get. I really wanted tiger, but Mae wouldn't give it up for the world, so we had to take minor powers.

Then Mae had an idea. "Hey, I've got it! Why don't I give you the powers on Earth? You know, like water, plants, that sort of thing?"

Personally, I loved that idea, and it seemed like the others did too.

The process of getting the power was complicated, and I can't even describe it, except that it felt weird.

I was really annoyed when she said that we won't be able to use our powers right away. Besides, she had to teach us _how_ to use them first. I couldn't wait!

When I got home, Delilah immediately noticed my excited behavior, and was about to start her questioning, but I put a stop to it fast:

"Delilah, will you please just mind your own business? Geez!"

Ok, here are the powers that everyone got: Julie got wind, Sabrina got water, Justin got earth, Chris got fire, and I got stars.

I was pretty pleased, although I had wanted fire. As I wondered how the heck you're supposed to use star power, Delilah walked in.

"Look, I'm sorry about getting into your business and all. I'm just interested and…worried about you," she explained.

"Why would you be worried about me?"

"Well, your friend Justin told me all about Mae and the magic and all that."

That really shocked me. I quickly kicked her out of my room and shut the door. "Why in the world would he do that?" I yelled. "Idiot!" Could this whole powers thing possibly have gotten any worse? I kicked the wall. It hurt one-hundred times more than it was supposed to.

"OW, OW, OW!" I yelped, holding my foot, and hopping to keep my balance.

The next day, I felt a little strange. "What the hell is going on?" I wondered. I couldn't be sure, but when the feeling didn't go away by the time lunch came around, I got a bit nervous. What was happening?

When I asked Justin and Chris about it, they said they felt the same way. We knew then that the choices were: we were getting some contagious disease, we were somehow hitting puberty at the same time, or the powers were starting to take over. I hoped it wasn't the contagious disease!

After school, I hurried up to the tree house. About halfway there, Julie caught up with me.

"Where are you off to?" she teased, obviously knowing where I was headed. She seemed to be acting a lot nicer to me, and actually, it wasn't really that strange anymore. Julie was a fun person to be around. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she liked me.

"Oh, just going to Wonderland…nothing new really," I shrugged.

"Haha. Hey, wanna race?" she said, getting pumped.

"Bet you can't beat me," I smirked.

"Betcha I can!"

We both raced each other to the tree house, and she proved her point…by beating me there.

Getting beaten by a girl…embarrassing!

Anyway, when we got up, Justin, Mae, and Chris were there. Sabrina didn't show up, for some reason. I asked Mae the first thing that had been on my mind all day:

"Why have all of us been feeling so weird today?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "You'll see," she said simply.

"Dang!" I thought. I hated it when people didn't tell me things! Well, then again, who doesn't? Then we all went back home.

That night, as usual, we all met up at Mae's tree house again. This time, Sabrina was there. Now I knew Mae was finally going to tell us about what had happened last weekend. She started talking immediately.

"You see, while we were walking back, I felt like I was being watched. I knew who it was, and he is very dangerous. In fact, he could kill any of you easily if he wanted to. To us, he is known as the dark Shape-Shifter."

"Creepy," Justin said tonelessly.

Mae sighed. "Yes…very creepy. Maia told me all about him. Shape-Shifter's plans are to kidnap all the phoenixes in the world. Then he's going to drain all their power and use it to get rid of the rest of us!"

Julie gasped loudly, and we all turned and stared at her. "Sorry," Julie whispered, red with embarrassment.

"Anyway," Mae continued, "Maia told me that it's up to me and her to stop him, but we can't do it alone. She told me to try to find the right group of people, and bring them into our world. Do you guys realize that now, all the other people around you are just illusions? None of this world is real to you anymore. That's why I was hesitant to give you powers."

When Mae finally finished all of this, I was hopelessly confused. "How are the people on Earth illusions? I can see them, touch them, talk to them…how are they not real?" I wondered.

This power thing was really starting to get wacky. The weird thing is, everyone else seemed to get it. Even Chris got it, and he usually never understood a word I said! Had they all secretly plan this overnight? Then I thought about it for a minute, and things actually started to make sense…

…sort of…not really.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The week went by quickly. Julie was still a bit freaked out about the whole Shape-Shifter thing, and every once in a while, she would twitch nervously. _ That_ creeped me out!

When Saturday came around, someone knocked on my bedroom door…loudly. Thinking it was my younger sister, I put on the most annoyed face I could, and opened the door fast. I was shocked when I saw Sabrina.

"Who let you in?" I asked immediately.

"Your mom, of course," she snorted, and then chuckled a bit. "Anyway, Mae sent me to come get you. They're all waiting at the tree house," she said.

"For what? It's Saturday. I thought we only meet on Sundays during the weekends."

"No time to explain. Now let's go!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of my room.

Sabrina and I hurried up the ladder into the tree house. Like she had said, they were all waiting for me. It seemed as if I had been the last one that Sabrina had fetched, because it didn't look like anyone else knew what was going on, either.

Well, everyone, except Mae, of course. Even Sabrina herself looked confused. I didn't blame them.

We usually have meetings every day _except _Saturday. The one day where I didn't have to learn anything! Once I got up there, we all started chatting, and everyone was wondering what the heck was going on.

It took a while for us to calm down, but when we finally did, Mae began to explain what this sudden meeting was about. She tried to use her best announcement kind of speech, and it sounded pretty funny.

"Listen up, folks. I have a very important announcement that needs some paying attention to."

We all quieted down quickly.

"I understand that you have been excited by the fact that you now have some magic in you. I realized that it can be extremely hard not to tell someone about these powers. However, my friends, you mustn't do so. These powers are to be kept secret, and that's that. Should anyone find out about this, and you will most likely be humiliated until the end of time. More importantly, telling someone will completely destroy the new world that you now live in. We will all become weak, and Shape-Shifter will easily take over. We don't want that to happen, do we, comrades?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Justin said, a little confused, "I thought you said that we were supposed to tell certain people, and bring them into our world!"

"And so, my friends," she continued, completely ignoring him, "I have made a decision. I'm going to wait a while to see how well the five of you can keep this all a secret. Once I know I can trust you, I will individually start to train each and every one of you with your power. At first it will only be the basics, so don't get too excited, comrades."

Mae said "my friends" and "comrades" a lot!

"Once you've mastered those, then things will start to get difficult. That is all I wanted to say, my friends."

When the announcements were finally finished, Chris and I hooted with the laughter that we had been holding back since Mae had started her speech. First of all, the way she had been speaking was absolutely hilarious. Secondly, we both hardly tell anyone _anything_, so what did we have to worry about? Even Mae giggled a little bit, knowing that she had spoken like that on purpose.

However, when I saw the look on Sabrina's face, I shut up right then, and Chris, realizing what was happening, soon followed. Justin didn't look to proud of us either. He liked Mae _way_ too much.

Even though we were in 9th grade, my parents would have killed me if they realized _I_ was dating anyone. So that put me at the bottom of the fight over Mae. That was what I absolutely hated about my parents.

Anyway, that's when I started taking the things that Mae had said into mind. As long as I didn't tell anyone about this, I would be able to learn all about how to use my star power, whatever that was!

Then I realized something. _Delilah _knew about it! Now I really wished Justin could have kept his mouth shut! I was going to keep that to myself for a while. Justin, Chris and I spent the rest of the night in the tree house, talking about how cool it would be to have the ability to do certain things with the magic that we now have inside us. We were exhausted by the time we went home.

Once I got in bed, I laid there for a while, just thinking about what had happened in the past few days. How excited I was to being so close to learning a new power, a power that could never be shared to anyone that wasn't part of our little group. I thought about Julie, and how she really seemed to like me now. I thought about Sabrina, who was actually considered my friend now.

How Chris was a little more talkative, and how Justin was shutting up a bit more. And how could I possibly forget about Mae, who was by far the most extraordinary girl I've ever met in my life. There was so much to think about, and before long I felt myself slowly drifting off to sleep…

_As fast as their legs would carry them, Julie and Bucky rushed through the forest. Behind them, an ugly, gruesome beast was pounding after them, and was catching up. The two didn't dare look back. It wasn't long before the chase came to a stop. They had reached a tall cliff…a dead end. Horrified, the two whipped around, just in time to see the beast leap towards them. Bucky dashed out of the way, but Julie wasn't quick enough. The beast landed on top off her, and its huge teeth aiming at her throat._

_ Bucky ran at the animal, but with one swipe of its giant paw, Bucky was flung backwards into a tree, and onto his stomach. Julie was terrified. Her attention snapped back onto the beast, which was bearing its teeth at her yet again._

_ …Bucky slowly got to his feet. This time he lunged at the ugly creature, full power, and he landed on its back. Now the animal was furious. It slammed Bucky against the cliff, and it was the last time the young boy would ever get up. "BUCKY!" Julie yelled, sobbing. The beast leaped back onto her, determined to kill…she screamed…_

I woke with a start. "Holy crap! My god, that was creepy." I started cursing pretty loudly. My mom heard that, and she did not approve of it. What did I care? I was in 9th grade.

What was really on my mind was that this was the first time I had actually been scared since…heck knows when. I had never had a dream, more like a nightmare really, quite like that before. Maybe I had dreamt that for a reason.

Well, I sure hoped it wasn't something that was going to happen in the future! I decided to tell Justin and see what he thought about it.

When I got to Justin's house, he wasn't there. When I asked his parents, they said they had no idea where he had gone. That wasn't good. The first place that he could possibly be was the tree house. That's when it dawned on me. Of course! I had totally forgotten about the Sunday meetings.

Now it was going to be the second time that weekend that I was going to be the last one there. And Mae would probably be pretty upset. Back when we started the whole meeting-at-the-tree-house thing, Mae told us that we should always be on time for the announcements, unless, of course, something important happened.

She especially wanted us to be on time on Sundays, because usually, Mae had more important things to say that day. Many things tend to happen by the time Sunday comes around, right?

So I dashed off for Mae's house. I started to get tired, when I got a strange feeling in me, and suddenly I picked up speed. Pretty soon, when I looked down at my feet, all I saw was a blur. _Yikes! _I thought. As I zipped across the backyard, Mae stuck her head out of the tree house. When she saw how fast I was going, her eyes widened.

"Stop running!" she hissed. "Someone will see you!"

That's when I remembered what she had said yesterday. Why was I always forgetting things?

Justin was anxious to hear what I had to say about my nightmare. He was completely surprised when I finished. "You? Dreaming about _Julie? _Now this is news to me!" he exclaimed. I looked around to see everyone staring at us. Oh, how Justin could embarrass me! I nudged him…hard.

"Ow! Hey, what the heck? I was kidding!" He narrowed his eyes at me, and then looked the other way. I smiled. Sometimes it was really fun to piss Justin off. Revenge did happen to be a better quality of mine.

After all the drama had stopped, Mae made her usual announcements, and she mentioned that when we were at school, it would be the real challenge to see if we could keep our mouths shut about the world and everything.

Personally, I think keeping my mouth shut when _Delilah _was around was the real challenge for me! I had no idea how was I going to avoid her this time.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next day started out terribly. My alarm clock didn't go off, for some reason, so I woke up with only ten minutes until the bus came! Why didn't my mom wake me up or something? Then again, I was kind of too old for that…

Anyway, I zoomed downstairs as quickly as possible. Delilah was waiting.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"Let's see…where you _think _I was?"

"Sorry…I'm just saying that you've only got about 5 minutes…"

"SHUT UP Delilah, I know already!" I just hated my sister. Then again, I kind of say that about a lot of people!

I finally got down to the bus stop. After about 5 minutes went by, my cell phone rang. It was Chris. "Bucky? Dude, where are you?" he asked.

"Um, I'm at the bus stop. Why?" I asked.

"Oh, I thought you were sick or something! Anyway, you missed the bus by a long shot."

"_What?" _I exclaimed.

"I said, you missed the-"

"I heard what you said!" I cut him off.

"O.K. well, I'll see you at school, I hope," he replied, and I hung up.

Now what was I going to do? "Well this is just great!" I threw my hands up and started walking in circles. Then I got an idea. I started running. Pretty soon that feeling came back, and within seconds my feet were hardly touching the ground! I decided to take the short cut through the woods so no one would see me.

Then I saw another kid zooming ahead of me…who else could it have been but Mae?

When I finally caught up with her, it was almost like a conversation while free falling!

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"I woke up late; my alarm clock didn't go off. And you?"

"I just missed the bus!" she laughed.

"How are you laughing at a time like this?"

Mae stopped running. I smacked into a tree again, and that's what stopped me.

"Look, Bucky…you a great guy, and a really good friend," she said, as she helped me to my feet. "The only problem is: I just wish you didn't take bad things too seriously. You have to look on the bright side."

She put her arm around my shoulder. My face felt hot.

"Easy for you to say! You're always so cheerful!" I groaned.

She giggled, and we started running again. All I could think about the rest of the way to school was what Mae had said.

Mae and I just barely made it to school on time. By the time I was at my locker, my legs were aching. I spotted Justin, and he came running up to me. "Bucky! Where have you been? Don't answer that. Hurry up, or you'll be late for Math class, and-oh, hi Mae!"

His tone completely changed when he said that. After that, I don't think Justin even cared if _he _was late!

I scowled at him under my breath, and hurried off to class. I sat down in the back of the room; between Chris and Sabrina.

Math class seemed to go on forever. About halfway through, Sabrina passed me a little folded up piece of paper. When I unfolded it, it said:

_Be sure to be at the tree house at 10:30 on the dot. Mae told me it's very important. -Sabrina_

I looked over at Sabrina, but she was looking at me, wide-eyed, gritting her teeth, and kept jerking her head towards whatever was in front of my desk. That's when I realized Mr. Owen, our math teacher, was standing over me. Everyone else was staring. Chris gulped. I knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Would you mind sharing with the class what is on that paper?" Mr. Owen asked coldly. I didn't respond. He grabbed the note from my hand and tossed it into the waste basket. I was really embarrassed now.

"Sorry about that," Sabrina whispered.

"It's fine."

Thank god class was almost over!

During lunch, the six of us ate away from everybody else: outside and under a tree. I asked Mae what she had meant by a "_very important"_ meeting, but she refused to say anything.

It didn't seem like Mae trusted Justin any more than she trusted me, because he looked completely clueless. Not that that's important, but when someone gets on my nerves, I tend to focus on them a lot. I don't know why.

After school was over, I rode home on the bus. I chatted with Chris the whole way, but for some reason, it didn't seem like Justin wanted to talk…at least not to me.

"You ok, Justin?" I finally asked him.

"I'm fine, Bucky. Just leave me alone, ok?" he replied with an angry look in his eyes. He turned his back to us and stared out the window.

"What's up with him?" Chris whispered.

"I have no idea!" I whispered back.

All I knew was that something was definitely going on.

When I got home, I quickly rushed upstairs to get my homework done. It wasn't long before I heard Delilah racing towards my bedroom.

I groaned. "What do you want?" I asked when she opened the door.

"Why are you doing your homework now, Buckinator? I thought you always put it off until, like, 9:30."

"Well, first of all, stop calling me Buckinator. It really annoys me! Secondly, I just want to get it done now so I can talk with my friends."

Delilah was a little too smart to fall for that.

"Honestly, Buckinator," she groaned, apparently not listening to the first thing I said, "I'm not that stupid. You're always on the phone _before _you do any work at all!"

"Well, sometimes people change their ways. And sometimes those people's little sisters' should mind their own BUSINESS!" I shouted.

Mom came in, and it was the same thing. After my normal complaint, Delilah rolled her eyes and left the room.

"Hun, I'm serious. She just wants to know what you're up to," Mom tried to explain.

"And that's _exactly_ what I don't want to tell her!" I said matter-of-factly. She also rolled her eyes before leaving.

You know the phrase "The same thing happens every night"? Well, _that's_ what it looks like!

My dad came in. "Hey, Bucky!"

"Hey, Dad," I said half-heartedly.

"How was your day?"

"Fine."

"Hey, is something wrong?" He asked. He started to walk over to me, but I was not in the mood for a father-son talk at the moment.

"I'm fine Dad. Goodnight."

"Oh alright. See you tomorrow," he said sadly, and left. I regretted shooing him away like that. I know he wants to get close to me, but I think my dad tries a little too hard sometimes.

And here's another phrase reference: They say that time flies when you're having fun.

Well, apparently I wasn't having any fun, because it took forever for my clock to strike 10:15. By now I was pretty sure everyone was asleep, but just to be sure, I waited a couple minutes longer, and then I got out onto the low side roof outside my window.

When I was on the edge of my window, I slipped! I landed flat on my behind on the edge of the roof. Man, I was such a klutz!

To my luck, no one in my family woke up, so I jumped onto the ground and started for Mae's house.

When I reached the base of the ladder to the tree house, it was obvious that everyone else was there. They all seemed to be talking at once.

I decided to play a prank on them. I slowly snuck up the ladder. When I reached the top rung, I crouched down as low as I could. Everyone was still talking. I jumped up and shouted as loud as I could.

Julie screamed. Justin fell back. Mae gave a little jump.

Everyone freaked out…well, except Sabrina, who just sat there. I cracked up. That had worked perfectly! Sabrina walked over and slapped me across the face. I was so surprised that I let go of the ladder. I fell backward onto the ground.

"OW! Sabrina, what the HECK was that for?" I shouted up to her.

"For being a jerk. Now get your little ass back up here!" She snapped. I could hear Justin laughing.

"Hey, Justin, whose side are you on?" I groaned, as I made my way back up the ladder. He tried to stop laughing.

"I'm on nobody's side…I'm sorry, man, but that was hilarious!" he snorted.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who shrieked, Justin!" I said angrily.

"Uh…that was me," I heard Julie admit from the other side of the tree house.

Justin ignored this, and kept laughing.

It took a while for everyone to calm down. As you can tell, we're not very good at doing that. Julie was still freaked out about my prank, and my face and back still hurt. And if my day weren't bad enough already, Justin was being really mean to me. I hope he wasn't trying to impress Mae or anything, because that definitely wouldn't work!

"Ok guys, listen up!" Mae said. "I know you are wondering why this meeting is so urgent. I know I told you that when I thought you were ready, I would individually teach you your powers. Well, I don't think there was a point in waiting that long, because I've decided to start tonight."

"Sweet!" said Chris, and I high-fived him.

"Who are you going to start with?" asked Julie.

"That, I still haven't decided," Mae replied.

This time, Chris and I groaned.

"Don't worry, because I'm going to decide right now. Ok, I think I'll start with…Bucky."

I was stunned. "Awesome!" I exclaimed.

"Hey, why him?" Justin asked.

"Because, I think Bucky needs some cheering up more than you do," Mae replied.

I snorted under my breath. Mae seriously just dissed him. Maybe that day wouldn't be so bad anymore.

At least, that's what I hoped…


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I was really excited now. I couldn't wait to learn my power. Although I couldn't imagine what you could possibly do with a bunch of stars, I was still pretty jittery.

"So," I asked, "When do we start?"

"Well, we can't practice in the tree house, because there's no room," Mae explained, "And besides, these are _private _lessons."

"Well, where are we going to practice, then?" I asked nervously.

"Follow me," she replied, and hopped from the opening of the tree house, flipping in the air, and landing perfectly on the ground. Everyone watched from the entrance in awe.

My eyes got wide. I didn't feel like hurting myself again, so I crawled down the ladder.

"You have to take more risks if you're going to learn anything," Mae teased.

"Shut up," I scoffed at her, and she laughed.

"Where are we going?" I asked repeatedly. I was starting to sound like Delilah.

Mae kept ignoring me, and I have to say, she was pretty good at doing that. I probably would have screamed by now if I were her.

"Could we possibly be going any slower?"

Mae whipped around. "Will you cut that out!" she said, catching me by surprise.

We kept walking. After what seemed like hours had gone by, Mae finally stopped. "O.K, this should be far enough," she said.

"No kidding!" I mumbled.

"Now pay attention to this." Mae started whipping her arms every which way, making all these crazy movements. Every once in a while she would spin. It was really cool to watch. Her last movement was to throw a strong punch in front of her.

When she finished, she said, "Alright, it's your turn."

I hesitated. There was no way I was going to be able to do all of that. I felt like an idiot as I tried to copy what Mae did.

"How was that?" I asked.

She groaned. "You have a lot of work to do," she sighed.

I hung my head.

"Here…I'm going to slow it down. Try to do it at the same time as I am," Mae said. She started again, and I tried to mirror her.

_As Mae was completing the skill, she noticed that the stars were starting to move. However, they weren't moving with her…they were moving with Bucky._

"O.K, now on the last punch, throw your arm out hard, and leave it there," Mae said. I obeyed.

That's when something amazing happened. The stars zoomed down from the sky and ran smoothly across my outstretched arm. They swirled all around us. I looked up at them, laughing a bit, then looked over at Mae. She was laughing too. She looked over at me.

I stopped laughing, and just smiled gently at her…and she smiled back. I let my arm drop…it was truly the best moment. One of the stars smacked into the back of my head.

She cracked up.

"Hehe," I laughed nervously, rubbing my head. We both looked up again.

"That…was…_awesome_!" I exclaimed. Mae laughed again.

"You're a natural, Bucky. The stars already obey you. Once they do what they just did, you have total control over them," she explained. "Now let's try something else. See if you could form a specific shape…like a pyramid!" Mae said.

"A pyramid?" I repeated, sounding as if that were the silliest idea ever.

I thought about for a minute. I pictured in my head what the pyramid would look like. I was also thinking about how I would possibly get the stars to form that kind of shape.

As I was thinking, I didn't notice that the stars were moving again. When I was done picturing everything, I looked up, and I was completely stunned; _the stars had taken the shape of a pyramid!_

"How did you do that?" Mae asked. She was as confused as I was.

"I don't know…I just…" I didn't know what to say.

"It looks like you have it the easy way. You only have to think of what the stars should do, and it's like sending a message up to them," she said.

"That sounds like something I read in a book once," I said, the "Cirque du Freak" series popping into my head.

"Oh, never mind the book…let's see what else you can do," Mae squealed excitedly.

Controlling the stars was so easy to me now. I could make them do practically anything. I did a whole bunch of things with them. I even created a piano that actually worked! Mae went over to it and sat down on the star bench, and then she started playing Crocodile Rock on the piano.

I started dancing and sang along.

We both cracked up…Mae had a good sense of humor. When she got up, I sat down and played a song my sister taught me. She loved Disney movies, so it wasn't surprising Delilah taught me "I See the Light" from Tangled.

Apparently, Mae loved that movie, and started to sing. She had an amazing voice, and it sounded just like Mandy Moore's (who voiced Rapunzel, by the way!) I joined in when Flynn's part came in, and we both harmonized at the end.

It was turning out to be one of the coolest nights of my life.

After a while, I spotted a big hill about twenty feet away. "Hey, I bet I can beat you to the top of that hill!" I said, pointing at it.

"Ha! Yeah right!" she said. Mae started running.

"Oh, come on! That's so unfair!" I called after her, and I started running too.

We both raced to the top. Mae beat me…I really wasn't surprised. We both laid down in the grass for a while, and she watched the stars as I made them swirl and dance around us.

After about twenty minutes went by, she stood up. "We'd better get back to the tree house. The others might get worried."

I agreed, but as we started to walking down, I saw something zip up the hill. Before I knew what was happening, it had leaped on top of Mae!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I was completely stunned. I saw Mae turn into a tiger. She took one swipe at the thing, and it was enough strength to throw it of her. It landed about five feet away from her. Mae got to her feet.

"Bucky…quick…get behind me," she said, and I could hear her accent loud and clear. I got behind her as fast as I could.

"What do you want, Shape-Shifter?" I heard her say.

I gasped. So this was the him?

"You know what I want, Maylonica!" he said.

His voice was so creepy…wait…what did he mean Maylonica?

Mae gritted her teeth and growled. She ran towards him. In a flash there were fists flying. It was like one of those Hollywood movie fighting scenes.

I knew I had to help her. I told the stars to help me out. That's when I heard them whisper back in my head.

"No problem….but first…you need to look a little more official," they said.

At first I didn't have a clue about what that meant. Then I started to feel a little strange. When I looked down, I saw that my outfit had changed. So had my hair…it pointed to the right. I looked like some really cool warrior. Under my left eye, I saw something glowing. It was just like the diamond on Mae's forehead, only this was a yellow star.

"That's much better," I heard the stars whisper. "Now what do you want us to do?" they asked.

This time, I knew exactly what to do.

In seconds, half of the stars swooped down over the area where Mae and the "S.S." (Shape-Shifter) were fighting. Most of them formed a big cage. Inside it, some stars had changed colors to look like a real phoenix. It looked as though the phoenix were trapped inside. The S.S. saw it, and fell for the trick. He ran over and tried to grab the phoenix, only to see all the stars fly out of his arms. That group formed the door to the cage, and locked him in.

All this time, my arms were making all these movements, just like Mae had. I threw out my arm, and that sent the cage high, far, and soon out of sight.

Mae got to her feet. She was back to being human again. She ran back up the hill and stopped in front of me. "Um…thanks for…helping me," she hesitated. I think she was a bit embarrassed; she probably thought she could have stopped him herself.

Mae looked pretty surprised, and I didn't blame her; I was even a little surprised myself at what I just did!

"It wasn't much," I said, but I wasn't really looking at her.

"Hey, who are you talking to?" she asked, waving her hand in my face, "I'm over here," she said.

I laughed, and I turned my head to face her.

There was a long pause, and neither of us said anything. We just stared at each other. Thank goodness it was starting to get dark, because I felt my face get hot. I looked down at my feet to hide my embarrassment.

The stars formed a DVD player and it started playing "I See the Light" again…this time with the original soundtrack and voices. I knew exactly what they were up to. They had minds of their own. I looked up with an un-amused expression at the star radio.

Mae giggled, and that's when something happened that I won't forget anytime soon. I felt Mae's hand on my chin, and she gently lifted my head up. She stared at me for a few seconds, smiling, and then she kissed me, right on the lips.

I was completely stunned. After a few seconds, I got my act together and put my arms around her. It seemed to last forever, but she finally backed up.

I was totally convinced for a second that I was dreaming! I couldn't see very well, but I think Mae was blushing.

"Hey, uh, could you excuse me for a minute while I go faint?" I joked.

She laughed.

"Please don't tell anyone about this. If either Justin or worse, my parents, find out about it, it will be the end of me," she pleaded, her smile fading.

I was a little confused.

"Wait…why is Justin so important?" I asked her.

"Because, I think we both know that he likes me, and he's already mad at you because…" Mae stopped.

"Because…?"

"Well, do you remember when we were almost late to school?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"And how Justin started flirting with me when we were at our lockers?"

"Yeah, that didn't annoy me at all!" I said sarcastically.

"Well, I knew he was trying to act cool in all, so I tried to lay down the line with him. I told him that he didn't impress me, and that it's not all about him. But what I said next is what caused the problem. I told him that he should be more like you."

That made me smile a bit, but when I saw how unhappy Mae looked, I wiped the smile off my face.

"And now Justin thinks you told me something bad about him, which I know isn't true, but he won't believe me. He said that it was "un-cool" to be taking your side. So please don't especially tell him. I don't want him to be any more mad at you…and probably me…than he already is!"

Mae started to cry. I could see a few tears running down her cheek. I felt terrible, and I gave her a hug.

"Don't worry, I won't tell him, or anyone. Besides, I wasn't planning to anyway." I pulled back.

She smiled.

I looked at my watch; it was nearly one in the morning! "Mae, we'd better head home," I said to her.

First we ran back to the tree house. None of the others were there. I watched Mae slowly walk back to her house. She stopped right at the back door. She waved at me, and then turned around. She grabbed the frame of one side of the door, and somehow flung herself high into the air, flipping as she rose.

As she was coming back down, she grabbed the frame of her bedroom window and swung herself inside, all in one move. "_I hope she teaches me that sometime!" _I said to myself.

Then I ran back to my house, slide through my window, into my bed, and lay there for a while. _I can't believe it! _I thought. _Mae actually kissed me!_

That day had gone from being the worst day that week to the best night of my life!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next morning, I woke up on time. In fact, I got to the bus stop about ten minutes before the bus even got there! I sat next to Mae on the bus. Chris got on at the next stop and sat across from me. However, when Justin got on, he sat way up front, instead of in the back with us. Mae and I looked at each other, and we both knew that Justin was still mad at us.

It was pretty much a normal school day. I went to all my classes, we all gathered for middle school announcements, etc. Everything was as usual. That is, until lunchtime.

I had just finished eating, and I was walking back to my locker, when I saw Delilah. She was face to face with another girl in her grade. Her name was Diane Rosenstein, I think.

Diane was popular in the 7th grade, but pretty low in terms of the whole school. From where I was standing, I could hear Diane making all these insults about Delilah's appearance. That ticked me off enough to step into the situation.

"Hey kid, who the heck do you think you're talking to?" I asked demandingly.

Delilah turned around, and Diane had to look past Delilah to see me. Delilah's embarrassed face broke into a huge smile.

"Who are _you_ talking to?" Diane asked rudely.

"Who the hell do you think I'm talking to?" I snapped.

"Who are you, and why do you even care what I'm doing?"

"I'm Bucky, and I'm Delilah's older brother."

Diane looked a bit shocked. "Really? Oh I see now…you too look somewhat alike…weird and ugly!"

"Hey, I don't care what you call me. But when people pick on my sister, things can get ugly, if I must admit!"

"What are you going to do about it…huh?"

There was a long pause.

"I didn't think so. I mean, you couldn't hit me, because you'd get in huge trouble."

By now most of the kids had come back from lunch, and they were all around us.

"You know what," I sighed, "You're right. I would get in trouble if I hit you, wouldn't I?" I pretended to look defeated.

Diane smiled proudly.

I smirked. "But I know who _can._ Hey, I could use a little help over here!"

Diane looked confused. What I had just done was basically send a signal. Luckily I had said it right when it would be heard. I saw a section of the kids surrounding us start getting shoved out of the way. I heard a familiar voice:

"Coming through! Get out of the way, idiot!"

Out from the crowd came Sabrina. She quickly jogged up to me. "What is it?" she asked.

I explained the situation.

Now Sabrina had her well known icy glare. She turned towards Diane.

"Look kid, you're picking on the wrong girl. It case you didn't know, I could beat you up in a minute. I've never stood up for anyone but myself before, but that's all going to change right now. I swear, if you say anything insulting to Delilah again, or even look at her rudely, and I find out about it, you're not going to live to see another day. Do you hear me?"

Diane scowled and started to walk away. That's when Sabrina lost it. She ran up to Diane and punched her, really hard. Diane fell flat onto her stomach. Some of her friends hurried over to help Diane up.

"What was that about?" one of them asked her.

"I don't know. Some freaks just came out of nowhere and hit me."

_Some freaks came out of nowhere, _I repeated in my head. Who the heck did that girl think she was dealing with?

That night, I walked into Delilah's room. She was sitting on the floor, reading a book.

"Hey, Deli," I said. That was the nickname I gave her.

"Hey."

"You alright?"

"Not really."

She looked up from her book, and slowly got to her feet. "You see, I want to be more popular at school, but everyone thinks I'm weird. They always say that I dress weirdly, or just anything about how I look or the way I act…like Diane. I always try to look better, but it never works!"

She sat down again, and she started to cry. I felt terrible. I had to cheer her up, and I knew exactly how.

"You know what," I said, "I think it's time for one of my famous Bucky Anderson Makeovers! How about it?"

This is something I used to do when Delilah and I were younger. I would wait for her to take a shower and get dressed, then she would call me in. I fixed her hair and stuff like that. I know it sounds like something a girl would do, but it was the only time I used to really feel connected to my sister.

Don't judge me…I'm the only boy in the family (besides my dad, of course)!

"Are you serious?" she asked, sounding surprised. "You haven't given me one of those since you were in…what…5th grade?"

Obviously, she agreed. I think she looked pretty cute when I was done. She kept staring into the mirror for minutes on end! "Thanks, Buckinator! I love it!"

I groaned. As much as I loved my sister, I still hated it when she called me Buckinator. She laughed and gave me a hug.

"Well, I hope that helps," I said to her.

"Me too."

"Goodnight."

"Later, Buckinator!"

I tucked her into bed. Almost immediately, she was fast asleep. I kissed her forehead, and tip-toed out of her room, shutting off her light as I left. When I got back to my room, I saw that my clock said it was 10:03.

That's when I remembered something: It wouldn't be long before I would have to be over at Mae's house. I quickly changed and waited. 10:15 actually came faster than I had expected. In no time flat, I was out the window, onto the ground, and racing off for the tree house.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

When I reached the top of the ladder, I found that only Mae was in the tree house.

"Where are the others?" I asked her.

"They're practicing their new powers. I've already trained each of them a little bit. I think Justin was the hardest, though. He still mad at both of us, and he didn't really want to listen to me."

"Yeah, that's understandable. Wait…are you saying that I'm the last one here _again_? Geez, how does everyone else get here before me?"

Mae laughed a bit, although she didn't actually answer my question. She did seem to have something else on her mind. I tried to get Mae to tell me, but apparently it was her turn not to listen.

Mae and I talked for a while, and I noticed after a bit that she had a worried look on her face. Now I was confused. I didn't understand how Mae could go from laughing to really nervous in such a short amount of time!

"Are you alright, Mae?" I asked her.

"Not really," she replied quietly, sitting down. That sounded exactly like Delilah.

"Why not?" I asked, kneeling down beside her.

"Well, Shape-Shifter is closing in on us. We can't stay here much longer," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We have to get out of here, Bucky."

I obviously wasn't getting the idea.

"Well, the ladder's right there…ladies first?" I half joked, standing back up.

She stood too. "I don't mean that, Bucky. I mean out of town."

"What?" I coughed.

"You heard me," she said.

"But Mae…we can't just leave!" I exclaimed.

"I know that. And I thought of something we can all enjoy for our last night here. The others seemed to like this idea, too. How about we have a skill competition, and sort of a show off competition, for our powers. Maybe at one point, we can all compete against each other, in like a mini-battle. Our siblings can be the judges. What do you think?" she asked excitedly.

"That sounds awesome-wait…did you just say our siblings would be judges? I thought you told us that no one should find out about this!" I said nervously.

"Bucky, first of all, I already found out about what your sister knows. Secondly, they all promised they wouldn't say anything to anybody. It's going to be alright, trust me!"

I relaxed.

"It's going to be really fun. Ok, be sure to be here on time tomorrow night. Oh, and bring your sister too. We need her to be one of our five judges," Mae informed me.

"Got it," I replied, and I started to leave.

"Wait…what about our parents? How are they not going to notice?"

"Oh, don't worry. I travel alone all the time, so I know what I'm doing, and my parents already talked to your parents and the others' as well. They've all agreed," she explained.

"Nice!" I said, and hurried home.

It seemed like forever before even 9:30 came around the next night. With still an hour to go, I was starting to get fidgety.

As usual, my sister popped her head in. Seeing me acting the way I was, she immediately starting talking. "I'm afraid to ask, Buckinator, but what's with the look on your face?"

I stood up. Delilah looked nervous. "Don't worry. I'm going to tell you everything. In fact, I need you to come with me tonight. I'll tell you everything on the way there."

She nodded and left the room.

10:15 finally came around, and I knocked on my sister's door. She was ready. We both snuck out my window, and I hurried over to Mae's house, Delilah behind me.

"Where are we going?" she asked me, and that's when I decided to tell her everything. Surprisingly, she immediately seemed to get it. I actually left out the part of me having to run away from home. I really didn't want to tell her that…not yet.

When we arrived at Mae's tree house, Delilah just stared up at it. "Man, that it one huge tree house," she said in awe.

I grabbed her arm, and we hurried up the ladder. I was astounded when the only ones up there were Mae and her little brother Ryan. "Are we late…again?" I asked nervously.

"No. Actually, you're the first ones here," Mae said.

I sighed with relief. Eventually, everyone else showed up, everyone bringing an older or younger sibling. All except Sabrina, who was an only child.

"Is everyone ready?" Mae asked us.

"Yes," all eleven of us said at once.

"Alright, let's roll!" Mae ran across the tree house, grabbed the top of the doorway with her hands, and flipped four times before landing perfectly on the ground.

We all carefully followed, not daring to even attempt to do what Mae had done.

Mae lead us to a wide open area in the woods. Nearby was a pond, (helpful for Sabrina). To be fair, Mae planned on using her simplest moves, since she was far more advanced than we were. She decided to go first.

Mae didn't lie about using simple moves, but still…she looked magnificent. And if that weren't enough, she had an astounding warrior outfit. The judges didn't make a single bad comment for her. Then again, how could you?

Next up was Julie. I had to admit, hers was pretty cool. She actually made the wind sing "Colors of the Wind" while it painted a sunset scene around us.

The judges liked it, except for Justin's older brother, Mike, who hated that song.

After Julie came Justin…to be honest, his was really lame. All he did was use the dirt and rock to create a throne and a crown for himself, then created people bowing down to him.

Honestly, that was not a good way to try and show off. All it proved is that he was a self-centered nutcase!

Not surprisingly, none of the judges had anything good to say, especially not Delilah.

Sabrina was annoyed now, and started off her part of the show by sending a tidal wave at Justin and his thrown, knocking it over and sending Justin flying.

Everyone laughed.

Sabrina's was pretty cool too, and she did a few things that were freaky, but at the same time awesome.

Chris's wasn't much different. He made the fire dance around and circle us at ease. And now I finally understand what it means to breathe fire!

Finally it was my turn. I started off with the first thing that Mae had taught me how to do: I sent those stars swirling all around me and everyone else. Everyone gazed and smiled with fascination.

The stars quickly transformed me into my awesome warrior outfit, and one star gently placed itself under my eye. Then I made them play something that was kind of childish but fun to watch. Mind you, I really did this for my sister, not for my own entertainment. Keep that in mind!

Immediately many stars created the scene, and a bunch of stars to the form of two different young characters: Brittany and Jeanette Miller.

Hey, that T.V. show was my favorite as a kid, so don't blame me. Then again, I did have a sister who secretly loved watching that stuff on YouTube, so I was kind of trying to specifically please her.

Julie and Mae seemed to recognize the whole scene, and decided to join in.

That's right, they acted and rocked out to "Getting Lucky" by the Chipettes, no joke!

Others stars performed the background sound effects and music.

Delilah got up and started to dance, too. Sabrina walked over to her, took her hand, and led Delilah out onto the dance floor with Julie and Mae.

Soon all four were singing and dancing their hearts out!

When I finally finished, what out-of-breath Delilah said made me crack up: "There's only one thing I can say…best…song…EVER!"

Everyone laughed with me. Even Delilah cracked up, realizing how funny she sounded.

It's too bad this was going to be the last night I would see her for a while, if ever again. I'm just glad that the last night that I spent there was probably just about the greatest night of my life!

Hey…have I said that too much?


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Finally, it was time to head home. I wish that night could have lasted longer, but of course it didn't. As everyone was starting to leave, Mae pulled me aside. "Just remember, we're all leaving tonight," she whispered in my ear.

I sighed and drooped my head; how was I going to tell this to Delilah?

"Oh, and by the way…here," she said. She urged me to put my hand up, and she pressed her hand against it.

For a second nothing happened. Then it felt like something shot up my arm!

"There, now you can fly. I've already given this to the other four. Now you won't have as much trouble sneaking out your window," she explained. How did she know I used the window to get outside?

"Hey Buckinator! You coming or what?" Delilah shouted over to me.

I looked over at Mae. She just stood there, so I turned to leave…

"Hey, Bucky," she said, grabbing a hold of my arm. She signaled me to come closer, as if to whisper something in my ear. Instead, she surprised me by kissing me on the cheek.

She smiled proudly, turned, and walked away. I sighed, smiling, and quickly hurried over to Delilah.

Unfortunately, Delilah had seen that.

"Hey hey, keep the stuff between you and your girlfriend private, alright?" she said obnoxiously, smirking immaturely.

I rolled my eyes, and lead her back home.

We talked all the way back. Delilah was squealing with glee about all the events that had just happened, and she was like a broken record as she went on and on about it.

"Oh my God! That was totally awesome! Yours was by far the coolest! It was almost like a big HD Flat screen T.V. in the sky…"

Delilah kept saying stuff like that until we got back home. I helped her onto the ledge of the side roof outside my window, and then she hoisted me up.

I really don't understand why I made all the effort to get back into my room, when I was going to have to jump back out anyway.

"So, do you want to talk for a little while, Bucky?" she asked me. It was the first time in a long time that she had actually called by a reasonable nickname.

I knew I couldn't stay. I had to head back to the tree house soon, and get ready to leave with the others.

But I couldn't just leave Delilah hanging there. "Well, actually Delilah…um…can you keep a secret? This is a big one," I assured her.

"Yeah, sure. What is it?"

"You promise you won't tell any of your little friends?"

"I promise."

"Well, my friends and I are leaving tonight."

"Oh…wait…WHAT?" she said loudly.

I slapped a hand over her mouth. "Keep it down, will you? Do you seriously want Mom or Dad, or both of them, to wake up?" I hissed. I explained everything I had left out before…including Shape-Shifter.

Delilah shook her head, and wrenched my hand away from her face. "But Bucky," she whined, "you can't just leave. Mom and Dad will be worried sick. They're going to send the police after you…everyone will be looking for you!" she exclaimed.

"Don't worry; Mom and Dad know I'm leaving. They just think I'm taking a trip," I explained.

"Are you even going to come back home?"

"I don't know, Deli…I don't know," I sighed.

Tears filled Delilah's eyes, and she started to cry. I hugged her. I felt terrible for her. I almost started crying, too, but I managed to hold the tears back.

"I'm going to miss you, Delilah," I said.

"Not have as much as I will."

I sighed. She made leaving so much harder! I pulled away from her.

"Bye, Deli," I whispered sadly.

"Later, Buckinator," she whimpered.

I walked to the back of the room. I took a deep breath, and dashed across the room towards my window. I jumped…

I didn't know what would happen, but I didn't want to open my eyes to find out. I felt nothing for about ten seconds. That's when I realized that by now, I should have hit the side roof, or at least something below me!

I managed to open one eye, and then the other, and found myself about five feet from the ground…in the middle of the backyard! I looked back, and saw Delilah watching me from my bedroom window, eyes wide, mouth hanging open, as I glided across the yard.

It didn't take me very long at all to figure out how to steer myself. I turned myself around, and waved at Delilah. She waved back. "LATER BUCKINATOR!" she called.

I was about to call back to her, when I got an idea. I shot up into the air, and made a big gap in the sky as I moved the stars out of the way. Then I sent a group of stars to form one letter, another group to form the next…

By the time I was done, it all read:

**LATER DELILAH!**

Then I flew off, right in the direction of Mae's house.

_Delilah stared at her brother as he disappeared onto the next road. She sighed. She started singing "When You're Gone" by Avril Lavigne. That's when she decided; that was the song she would sing for the talent show…and she would sing it for Bucky._


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

When I got to the tree house, only Mae was there. She looked a bit anxious. She probably saw the depressed look on my face, because she walked across the tree house and sat down next to me.

"Is everything O.K. Bucky?"

"Not really."

"What's wrong?"

I looked over at her, and realizing that there were tears in my eyes, I quickly looked away. I didn't want Mae to see me cry…but it was too late, I guess. She had already seen it.

Mae put her arm on my shoulder. Now I was really crying. I tucked my knees in and rested my face on my arm. "I know its hard Bucky. Trust me, I know…but we don't really have a choice. Ugh…I'm really sorry I did this to you guys," she groaned, placing her head in her free hand.

Suddenly, I got a thought in my head; _It isn't Mae's fault this all happened. There are two things: One, we kind of talked her into it. And two, if that weren't enough, Mae needs our help to get rid of something that could kill her, and everyone else that's part of this magic world._

I told Mae what I had been thinking, and it made her smile. She looked like she was going to kiss me again. I started to lean in. Just then, Justin came up the ladder. Mae and I quickly pulled back, and we looked at each other nervously. We had no idea what Justin was going to do.

"Oh, um…hey, Justin," I said, giving a quick wave.

"Uh, Bucky…can I talk to you…outside?" he asked.

I followed him. Justin made sure no one was listening. "Look, I know I've been a real jerk to you and Mae lately, and…well…I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"Wait, why have you been acting like this?" I asked.

He sighed, and then told me basically what Mae had told me before. Justin said that because he hadn't realized that he had been acting the way he was, he had thought that what Mae had told Justin came from something that I had said to her. He said that he obviously knew that if it had been true, I would have tried to hide it all.

That seemed pretty reasonable to me. Even I would sometimes act pretty rudely without even realizing it, so I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"So, do you forgive me?" Justin asked nervously. "You aren't mad at me, are you?"

"Actually, I'm furious!" I snorted, trying to hide a smirk. "I can't believe you would actually think that I would say something like that about you! Are you nuts?"

Justin hung his head. As he looked up again to explain, he only found that I was biting my tongue to keep from hysterically laughing. Finally he caught on, and at last I let it out.

Justin laughed along with me. I laughed so hard my eyes started tearing, which only made me laugh harder. After a minute, we finally calmed down.

"Hey, what's so funny?" I heard a familiar voice say. We both turned to see Sabrina right behind us.

"Oh, nothing," Justin shrugged.

Sabrina rolled her eyes, walked over to the ladder, and started climbing. Justin and I followed behind her, both of us trying not to laugh.

Eventually, Julie and Chris showed up. It didn't seem like any of us really wanted to leave…and we didn't even know where the heck we were going! Well, Mae did, but the other five of us sure didn't!

"Are you all ready to go?" Mae asked us.

We all nodded sadly.

I spoke up with the question that had probably been on everyone's mind: "Hang on a sec, Mae. Where exactly are we going?"

"You'll see," she replied.

We all narrowed our eyes at her. Chris, Sabrina and I folded our arms, and Justin and Julie placed their hands on their hips.

"Ugh…okay, okay, fine! We're going to Maylonica."

"What's Maylonica?" Chris asked.

"It's the real home that I'm from…it's where I got my name. We all have real names, and the teens, like us, also have more interesting titles than the adults do!" she chuckled.

I personally could think of some pretty cool titles for the others. I actually wrote a list down. This is what I could come up with at that moment:

Sabrina: The Bully

Justin: The Jock

Julie: **The Drama Queen**

Chris: Shy and Simple

Mae: The Dare-Devil

I couldn't seem to think of anything for myself, though. I thought of a few ideas:

_The singer _Too girly

_Outgoing _Not enough

_The Star _That's just self-centered!

_No Name _What? I ran out of ideas!

I just couldn't think of anything. Even _No Name _didn't seem to work! There were the real names, too. Those were a bit harder to come up with:

Sabrina: _Chrystallion_

Justin: _Princethon_

Julie: _Fantasia_

Chris: _Zazuko_

Mae: _Maylonica _(This one I already knew)

I did manage to think of one for myself this time…and it didn't take very long:

Bucky: _Buckinator_

That name might annoy me a bit, but hey, at least it's something, right?


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Alright, I guess we're ready to go," Mae said. "Actually, how about we all change into our warrior outfits?"

"Sounds good," I replied, and everyone else agreed.

Of the girls' outfits, I think Mae's was the coolest. It looked like something one of the characters from "Shugo Chara" would wear (that's an anime series that Delilah was currently obsessed with. I never read it so don't laugh at me! She just drew pictures of them all the time and would show them to me!).

Mae wore a pink strapless top and a really frilly skirt. Her legs were wrapped in ribbons, and there was a _giant _bow on her back. She had gloves on that didn't cover the tips of her fingers, and she carried a sword with a heart at the top of its handle. She also wore a necklace with a key in the shape of a diamond.

After we had all transformed, everyone, one by one, leaped out the entrance of the tree house. Mae was first out, then me, then Chris, then Sabrina, then Justin, and then last came Julie. We all soared up into the night sky, and then we all fell into line behind Mae.

Flying was so much fun. It was the thing that every kid thinks about at least once in their life, and now I could understand why: feeling the wind in my face, the almost weightlessness and the knowledge that practically no one else could do this, it felt great!

After a little while, we all started moving around, which Mae said we could do. She even joined in. I was having such a blast! "Woohoo!" I shouted as I spun around in the air. Chris laughed, and we both started wrestling.

We bumped into Sabrina. We froze. I gulped, and waited for the yell or a punch.

However, Sabrina laughed and shoved both of us. I took my chances and shoved her back. Pretty soon, all three of us were messing around.

We all ran out of breath eventually. I looked up at Sabrina, who was still laughing. "She's changed," I thought. It seemed like the name "bully" became "buddy".

We kept flying. All of us started trying tricks in the air, like flipping and spinning and stuff like that. Julie and Sabrina held hands and spun super-fast, laughing like crazy when they got out of control and smacked into the rest of us, causing all of us to scatter.

I caught up with Mae and talked with her for a while. I asked her what it was like in Maylonica.

"Oh, it's beautiful there. It's anything a kid could dream of. You can do practically whatever you want, anytime," she explained happily.

"Really? I can't wait! So, are you well known there, or are you just one of the others?" I asked curiously.

"Well, actually, I'm their princess."

"What?" I gasped.

"Bucky, you've gotta stop doing that; I know you heard me. Anyway, my real parents' names are Phantotigon and Mellionyne, and they are the King and Queen of Maylonica. When my mother, Mellionyne, had me, they decided to name me after the land they ruled. When I was sent down to Earth, as a child, to find more warriors like you guys, my name was shortened to Mae, in order to cover up my true identity."

"Kind of like a spy, right?" I joked a bit.

"Uhh…sort of. Not long ago, Shape-Shifter kidnapped my parents and managed to wipe out most of my memory of them; plus, since I was only 4 when I came down here, I didn't have much I could remember anyway. But now, because of Shape-Shifter, I find it impossible to remember what my parents looked like, let alone where they've been taken. I've been searching for three years now with no success," Mae sighed.

Fearing I might say something wrong, I didn't try to respond.

We flew for a little while in complete silence. The urge to say something finally got the better of me. "Look, I'm really sorry about what happened to your parents. I will do anything to help you find them…I promise."

She raised an eyebrow at that.

"And when I promise something, I never, ever, break that promise…" and after a short silence I added quietly, "…ever."

"Alright then, Rapunzel," Mae laughed, picking up on my completely unoriginal line.

We both got a good laugh out of that.

"What's so funny?" Sabrina asked in a sing-song voice as she flew up to us and squirmed her way between me and Mae.

"Oh, nothing," I smirked.

"Oh, come on," Sabrina groaned and shoved me with fake anger. I laughed again, and we resumed the wrestling from before.

We were having a lot of fun, until a hand grabbed onto my collar, and I saw another grasp Sabrina's arm. Mae and Julie quickly pulled us up.

"Didn't notice that you were falling, did you?" Julie said, folding her arms as she floated up-right in mid-air.

I had completely forgotten that we were flying, not just messing around on the ground.

Justin and Chris met up with us, and once again we all flew as a group, talking, laughing, and occasionally shoving, but this time more concentrated on where were going.

I had no idea how much longer we would be flying. It seemed to be taking forever. Then again, it felt that way anytime I travelled anywhere.

After a few more hours, Mae stopped flying, and simply floated in mid-air. We did the same. I floated over to Mae and whispered, "What is it?"

"We're here," she muttered back.

…And that was just the start of the long preparations for the great battle to come.

_To be Continued…_


End file.
